An IBM equity stake in Synon’s horoscope as it becomes first AS/400 AD/Cycle partner

Synon Ltd of Islington, London is the fourth software house to become an IBM AD/Cycle Business Partner and is the first UK company to follow in the footsteps of the three US companies, Bachman Information Systems Inc, Index Technology Corp and KnowledgeWare Inc and take the IBM vows of allegiance – and the first to come from the AS/400 rather than the 370 MVS camp. Synon was set up in 1983 by three people and has since grown by about 200% a year and now employs 450 staff worldwide. In 1989 its revenue reached UKP22m and this is expected to double over this financial year. The company managed to grow its US side up almost simultaneously under Chris Herron, the founder of the Fusion report generator after he had sold that product to Pansophic. This helps to explain the company’s superficial success in the US, a market that contributes 45% of Synon’s revenue and which Synon expects to penetrate deeper over the year as the AS/400 installed user base is growing faster there than elsewhere. In fact only a quarter of Synon’s turnover is derived from the UK, with the remaining 30% coming from overseas distribution beyond the UK and the US. From its inception, the company intended to complement IBM and spent a couple of years banging on IBM’s door. A vendor logo deal was struck in June 1988 under which IBM directly markets Synon/2 throughout Europe using the Synon logo, Synon also distributes its products directly and via a network of IBM Agents. Each sale under the vendor logo agreement is a joint sale for which IBM takes a royalty. However, with its new-found status as IBM Business Partner, Synon gains entry to IBM’s Toronto laboratories to watch the AD/Cycle develop.

Beg to differ

Consequently, Chris Hodge, head of UK operations is confident that within 18 months Synon/2 will be capable of generating co-operative processing systems using PS/2s and AS/400s. At the moment it has its AD/Interface product, which enables applications developed using IBM’s Cross Systems Product on a PS/2 to be transferred through the External Source Format to Synon which then generates those applications to run on AS/400s. Soon programmers will be able to use a graphical front end to write applications to Synon/2 and won’t require the External Source Format to transfer applications. Synon will support the external source format interface of IBM’s Cross System Product applications generator so that applications defined with Synon on the AS/400 can be transferred using the interface across all other Systems Application Architecture boxes. Similarly, applications defined using Cross System Product on System/370 or PS/2 can be transferred to the AS/400. The applications are produced either in Cobol or RPG/400. Hodge says Synon has no qualms whatsoever about allying itself with IBM even though IBM may at some point be able to bridge its own AD/Cycle product gap for the mid-range. Nor does Synon have any regrets about identifying itself with the AS/400 market, as it sees this as a market which will continue growing for the next decade at least, especially as IBM is expanding the range further up market with the B70, and has B80 and B90 models up its sleeve. Furthermore, Hodge says that IBM is reasonably happy that Synon/2 is popular with IBM users moving down from 4300s to AS/400s, since although it would prefer its installed mainframe base to move up to Summit en masse it would rather keep its customers in its own mid-range market than lose them to DEC. (While this may be true from the group perspective some IBM product marketing managers would undoubtedly beg to differ). Hodge did not rule out the possibility that Synon may at some stage design a version of Synon/2 for the RS/6000 Unix market thus bringing AIX firmly into the Systems Application Architecture club. However, he said that Synon would be guided by IBM in this matter and added that IBM may well soon take an equity stake in Synon. – Katy Ring

Excelerator UK adds an SSADM version of Excelerator for IBM’s

AD/Cycle

Excelerator UK, one of Index Technology’s four wholly-owned European subsidiaries, has released an SSDAM version of the Excelerator analysis and design tool that is part of IBM’s long-awaited AD/Cycle. SSDAM, Structured Systems Analysis and Design Methodology, is a standard defined by the UK government with the assistance of Learmonth & Burchett Management Systems. The company says that Excelerator/SSADM ensures that project standards are set and it enables developers to use the parts of SSADM that are appropriate to that project, whilst using other approaches at different stages of development. It supports data structure diagrams, relational data diagrams, data flow diagrams, entity life history diagrams, logical process and dialogue outlines, structure charts and diagrams, and screen report designs. The product runs on IBM personal computers and compatibles, with 640Kb of random access memory, and the company is launching an OS/2 version later this year. Excelerator/SSADM costs UKP6,820 for the first copy or UKP4,840 for the first 10 copies. It is part of a family of computer-aided software engineering products that comprises Excelerator/IS for developing generic commercial systems, Excelerator/RTS for real-time systems in the defence sector, and an Excelerator interface for DB2. Excelerator UK achieved a turnover of UKP3m last year, and now employs 35 people. The parent, Index Technology, is one of three companies closely allied to IBM’s dvelopment of AD/Cycle, and IBM acquired a 5% stake in Index last September. They cemented that relationship in November when IBM agreed to purchase 2,500 copies of Excelerator, having already installed 700 for internal use. IBM can sell the product in the US, and they have a renewable marketing agreement in Europe. The UK operation says that there is no indication IBM wants to increase its stake in Index Technology, but they would regard it as a further stamp of approval if it did so. Excelerator UK insists that AD/Cycle is, as IBM claims, a framework for the 1990s, and says that the July launch of a Repository Manager is the first of many. Dr Tony Hill, UK managing director, believes that IBM is thoroughly committed to OS/2 and Systems Application Architecture, but he acknowledges that sales are dependent on the availability of software applications. He says that Excel-erator UK will maintain both MS-DOS and OS/2 versions, and the decision to do version of the products for Unix and DEC’s VMS will be market-driven. He regards the lack of methodology standards in Europe as a positive commercial advantage for Excelerator, but he also anticipates a rationalisation of the computer-aided software engineering industry. That, he says, will probably happen under the aegis of IBM and the direction that AD/Cycle takes presumably if IBM hasn’t endorsed your design product for use with AD/Cycle, you ain’t goin’ nowhere. – Janice McGinn